


please forget about me

by avosettas



Series: don't forget (i'm with you as it gets dark, darker, yet darker) [1]
Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Gen, Pre-Undertale, Sans's Workshop, Spoilers - Undertale Pacifist Route
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-28
Updated: 2020-08-28
Packaged: 2021-03-06 15:14:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,027
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26150944
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/avosettas/pseuds/avosettas
Summary: “think we’ll ever get outta here, al?”“Yes, at six o’ clock tonight,” Alphys jokes. More serious, she adds, “I don’t know, Sans, but I hope so.”
Relationships: Alphys & Sans (Undertale)
Series: don't forget (i'm with you as it gets dark, darker, yet darker) [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1980775
Kudos: 31





	please forget about me

**Author's Note:**

> it's not mentioned, but this takes place while asriel and chara are still alive, and toriel is still queen. just cos the underground has hope doesn't mean they dont want out (and also that are resident depressed skeleton and anxious lizard arent Sad). this is also based on my theory that sans and alphys are the only ones old enough to remember when toriel was queen. 
> 
> i have more but this felt like a good ending. ALSO THIS IS MEANT TO BE PLATONIC, i just think they're very close, like qpps almost.

“i hate this thing,” Sans says, as he does everyday, on the walk to their office. 

“It’s, it’s not so bad,” Alphys replies, as she does everyday. “This thing” is the machine that the Royal Scientist has dubbed the DT Extractor, for use in their main project, now that the CORE is complete. 

To recreate the power of the SOUL, and free the monsters. 

“Do, um, do you think it’ll work?” Alphys asks, unlocking the door to their shared office. Sans just shrugs and throws his sweatshirt onto his chair, trading it for his lab coat. Alphys does similar, pulling her lab coat on over her clothing, and moving her keycard to one of its pockets. (Sans had started keeping his keycard on a lanyard long ago, following an incident where he managed to get stuck in the basement for three hours.) 

They have to pass the DT Extractor again on their way to find the Royal Scientist, and Sans stares at it as they walk. “think we’ll ever get outta here, al?” 

“Yes, at six o’ clock tonight,” Alphys jokes. More serious, she adds, “I don’t know, Sans, but I hope so.” 

Gaster is already making calculations in the Machine Room when Sans and Alphys enter. “mornin’ doc.” 

“Good morning, Dr. Gaster.” 

Gaster only hums in reply, then dives right into it, prodding at the computer screen with a a pencil. “ _I’M GETTING NEGATIVE PHOTON READINGS ON THIS_ ,” he tells them, signing with phantom hands as he speaks. Sans cringes - he knows skeletons can’t pick their own fonts, but Wingdings gives him a goddamn headache. 

“Is - is that even possible?” Alphys was, first and foremost, a biologist, despite her well-rounded education. Photons were more up Sans’s route, as one of the many physicists in the labs. 

“shouldn’t be,” Sans grunts, stepping up to the computer. “but, well. sometimes physics doesn’t correspond to real life.” 

“That’s a pain,” Alphys says. “Are we testing the machine today?” 

“ _AS SOON AS SOMEONE HERDS THOSE IDIOT ASSISTANTS IN_.” 

“I’ll, um, go find them,” Alphys volunteers, and Sans nods in agreement, because he hates dealing with the techs. The bird guy is alright, he guesses, but one of them, a round-headed monster with big eyes, is so afraid of looking like a fool in front of Gaster that he ends up making a fool of himself. And don’t even get him started on the damn cat guy. 

“you think this is gonna work, dings?” Sans asks when Alphys leaves. The machine sits on the other side of the wall, pristine and never-before-used. 

“ _...I HOPE SO_.” Sans smirks. 

“not like you, feelin’ uncertain. all the ice comin’ up from snowdin givin’ you cold feet?” 

Gaster shakes his head. “ _TERRIBLE, SANS._ ” Then, he straightens. “ _I MUST HAVE CONFIDENCE IN MY WORK, AND THAT I DON’T… MEANS THIS NEXT TEST WILL BE VERY INTERESTING._ ” 

“well, with you at the helm, everything is,” Sans says with a grin, but inwardly, he’s not so confident.

Alphys rushes in suddenly, one of the techs at her back. “The other two are coming,” she says, sounding exhausted. 

“ _GOOD, GOOD. I WAS JUST TELLING SANS,_ ” Gaster says as the other two techs come in, one with coffee and the other with Popato Chisps, “ _THAT THIS NEXT EXPERIMENT SEEMS VERY, VERY INTERESTING._ ” 

Sans tries to catch Alphys’s eye, but she only twitters a bit in agreement. “Should, should we, um…” 

“ _YES, PLEASE BEGIN TO HOOK UP THE MACHINE._ ” 

“think the extra pipes are in our office,” Sans says as the techs start falling over themselves to hook the machine up to the CORE’s energy supply. “al?”

“Coming!” 

The DT Extractor stares at them in the room beside the Machine Room, sinister as always, and Sans hisses through his teeth as they make their way down the hallway, “the doc isn’t sure about the machine, al.” 

“What? But, but he’s _always_ so sure - he never does things if he _isn’t_!” Alphys whispers back. There’s no reason for it - no one is here so early except for the two of them, Gaster, and the techs. 

“yeah. which means he must think this is pretty important,” Sans says darkly, unlocking their office and dragging out the box of extra connection pipes from next to his desk. 

“...Does he ever, um…” Alphys wrings her empty hands - Sans really only pulled her along to voice his concerns. 

“what?” 

“Does Dr. Gaster ever frighten you?” 

Sans thinks. It’s not a hard answer. “sometimes,” he mumbles grimly. “he’s too… into this.” 

“Well, you, you should love your work…” 

“yeah, but he doesn’t love it, al.” Sans unlocks the door to the DT Extractor room, frowning at the horrid, skull-shaped contraption as the door opens. “he’s infatuated with it.” 

Sans gives the techs the rest of the pipes as Alphys sits near the door, noting readings on one of the computers. He leans on the desk, hands in his pockets, slouched next to Alphys. If he wasn’t the… third? Probably the third most important dude in the lab, he’d probably get in trouble for it. 

Gaster is still at the computer next to the machine, far closer than Sans or Alphys. The techs congregate close to him when they finish hooking everything together. He checks it, and nods once, twice. 

“ _...PHOTON READINGS STILL NEGATIVE. THAT WILL CHANGE, I BELIEVE, WHEN WE BEGIN._ ” He looks towards Alphys and Sans. “ _WHAT DO YOU TWO THINK?_ ” 

“...They should at least, um, change when we power it up,” Alphys says with a decisive nod. Sans moves to her other side, to the lever next to the door. Gaster looks up at him and nods firmly. 

Sans pulls the lever. 

There’s a horrible noise, like something crashing and screaming and exploding all at once, and bright, white light. He raises an arm to cover his eyes, but he can’t see anything beyond Alphys at her computer, using both arms to shield her face. 

When he lowers his arm, the only thing on the other side of the room is the machine, no longer hooked up. The connection pipes are gone, and it looks as though it was never powered up in the first place. 

“What… what just happened?” Alphys asks, looking at him with fear. She’s shaking a bit, and Sans squeezes her shoulder a bit. 

“i think instead of ripping open the barrier, that machine just ripped open space-time.” Ever the scientist, he orders, “print out the data for me.” 

“Got it,” she says. Sans moves closer to the machine. 

There’s something white on the floor, like ceramic or porcelain. 

“oh my fucking…” 

“What is it? What, what’s wrong?” Alphys rushes from her seat, and in the background Sans hear the printing clunking. 

It’s bone. It’s a chunk of bone. 

“Oh my… His, his skull,” Alphys whispers, voicing what Sans couldn’t. 

“i’m gonna, uh. get the broom.” Sans says finally. It feels horrendously insufficient for… whatever just happened. 

His skull feels like it’s full of snow. Empty and cold and _numb_. He barely notices that the DT Extractor - hooked up to the CORE by way of the same mechanism - is gone, too. 

“alphys,” he begins walking in, but stops short. “uh, hi, king asgore.” 

On this, possibly the worst day in the labs, Asgore shows up. It’s not a particularly formal visit - he’s not dressed in his normal armor. He waves at Sans. “Hello, Sans! How is your younger brother?” 

“oh, paps is great,” he replies, beginning to sweep. He catches bits of the conversation as he does. 

“Have you tested the machine yet?” 

“Er, yes, just today…” Alphys doesn’t mention Gaster, but she does say, “It was a failure, unfortunately.” 

“A shame,” Asgore says, shaking his head. He seems to catch something, and grins, “You still haven’t updated your keycard, hm? I’m not sure how fitting it is for the Royal Scientist to be running around with a keycard that identifies her as an assistant, Alphys! It’s only been nearly four years.” He laughs, a great booming sound. “Keep up the good work, you two.”

When he leaves, Sans inspects the dustpan. Bits of skull, and a single keycard, despite four people disappearing. 

It’s Gaster’s. _Wingdings Gaster, Royal Scientist_ , it reads, with his signature under it in Wingdings font, and a picture of him looking grumpy above it. Pristine, unlike both Sans and Alphys’s keycards. 

Alphys looks confused and panicky when Sans looks up. “Does - he doesn’t remember Dr. Gaster?” 

“al, just a hunch, but i don’t know if anyone besides us knows the doc existed,” Sans says. He logs into the computer Alphys has been using and pulls up the internal staff list and goes back, back, back, back, back… 

“...Oh my god,” Alphys says, looking over his shoulder. “Dr. Gaster and the techs…” 

“they fell into… something that made them never exist,” Sans says in disbelief. Even years back, they aren’t listed on the internal staff list. He pulls his phone out of his labcoat. “hold on.” 

Grillby should hopefully be awake by now, but if not, hopefully Papyrus will answer his phone when he sees Sans’s name on the caller ID. 

Sure enough, he does. “HEWLO?” 

“hey, bud. how’s it goin’?” Alphys is making a confused face at him, and Sans waves it off. 

“I MADE ANOTHER PUZZLE FOR YOU TO TWY TONIGHT!” 

“that’s great, paps. sure it’ll stump me. listen, who’s the royal scientist?” 

“YOU WORK WIF HER!” Papyrus already sounds exasperated. Probably rolling his eye sockets. “YOU TOLD ME YOU’VE WORKED WIF DR. ALPHYS SINCE BEFORE SHE WAS THE ROYAL SCIENCE LADY!” 

“ah. okay, thanks bud. i’ll see ya later. tell grillbz i say hey,” Sans hangs up, and his expression immediately falls into a grimace. “paps pretty much said what asgore said.” 

Alphys looks stricken. “I, I can’t be Royal Scientist! What am I supposed to do?” 

“...i’m sorry, al.” Alphys is a messy crier, but at least it makes Sans feel useful to hold her tightly while she cries and gets snot on his labcoat. 

~

The first thing they do is work out where to go with the research. They’re scientists - they’re going to do the pragmatic thing first. 

“We, um, I think we need to rebuild the DT Extractor,” Alphys says, circling something on her notepad. 

“‘nd get rid of that damn machine,” Sans nods. “i got room in my cellar.” 

“Does it lock?” 

“yep.” 

Sans clears out his half of the office. Alphys changes the permissions for the keycodes - the only people allowed in the lower levels of the labs now are the two of them. 

“I’ll, um, get the machine on the cart…” 

So Sans braves Gaster’s office alone. There are some photos on the desk - he pockets those. Gaster and the techs, all six of them, Gaster with Sans and Alphys… Everything else, he leaves. 

“All set?” Alphys asks. She’s loaded the machine onto a handcart. Sans looks up at it - it’s at least twice his height. 

“as i’ll ever be.” And he “shortcuts” them back to his cellar. 

“...Very, um, clean.” Alphys observes, putting the machine in a corner and getting the handcart out.

“not so like me, huh?” Sans asks with a faint chuckle. His heart isn’t in it. He puts the photos and Gaster’s keycard in the leftmost drawer. Alphys lets the handcart rest against the wall and walks next to him, staring sadly at the machine. 

“Are you sure you, um…” 

“i can’t be in the labs after that, al. i’m sorry.” Alphys nods, very slowly. 

“I can’t either,” she says bitterly. “But, but it’s not like I have a choice, huh?” 

Sans grabs her hand and squeezes it. “i’ll be here if you need me, y’know? anything, al.” 

“...Thanks.” Then, she pulls two things out of her pocket - a sheet of blueprints, and a piece of paper, about the size of an index card. “Here.” 

Blueprints for the machine, he surmises, looking them over and reading the Wingdings quickly. The paper is different - it’s a pencil drawing, clearly photocopied, of three people. 

“It’s us,” Alphys says quietly. In her handwriting, much neater than Sans has ever seen it, it says “don’t forget”. 

“it’s great, al.”


End file.
